Much Ado About Nothing: An Overview :: essays research papers

Much Ado About Nothing An Overview     It is a beautiful spring afternoon. The air is proficient of the radiance offreshly bloomed daisies and the energizing chill of the periodic spring breeze.Puffy large cumulus clouds fill the azure sky with gray thunderheads looming offin the distance. Looking down from the clouds, one can see a gathering of o.k.ly dressed people. Birds flying overhead hear the murmurs of the crowdgathered for a wedding of gentry.     Shakespeare could never have planned the first scene of Act IV in MuchAdo About Nothing so well. The undisturbed sky overhead symbolizing the beauty andjoviality of the occasion dark rain clouds looming in the distanceforeshadowing the mischief to come. Despite his inability to promise weatherpatterns, Shakespeare developed marvelous scenes which he displayed in his owntheater, The Globe. How did Shakespeare portray the emotional aspects of hischaracters and their strife to his audience? H ow did he direct the actors andwhat did the open air full stop of The Globe look like?     Imagine yourself in London circa 1600, a short year after the completionof the Globe Theater and perhaps a few months after the completion of the playMuch Ado About Nothing, Act IV has just begun. Claudio and Hero are facing each new(prenominal) in front of a simple, yet anciently beautiful altar, garbed in Elizabethancostume fit for the occasion. Hero is wearing a abundant white dress with trailerand high neck which is adorned according to the fashion trends of the time.Claudio has donned a royal looking doublet with silver trim and hose to evenlyas majestic. Sitting on either side of the couple in ancient pews, shrouded insolemn silence, are arrogate Pedro the Prince of Aragon, Don John the Bastard,Leonato, Benedick, Beatrice and the attendants of Beatrice and Hero. facing thecouple, positioned in between them so the audience may hear him, is FriarFrancis wearing a s imple white robe and golden cross, his only posessions. DonPedro wears a doublet ornately embroidered with golden designs. He is the onlyperson on stage looking finer than Claudio, marking his royal blood to all. Theothers wear fine doublets and dresses, although not decorated elaborately, toshow their respect for the wedding pair.     Scene IV actually begins when Leonato stands and makes his brave butrespectful request to the Friar to be drawing with the ceremonies (IV i,l1).Knowing his duties, the Friar continues square-faced with the wedding by askingClaudio of his intentions to embrace Hero (IV i,l5). Without hesitation Claudioresponds, "No." (IV i,l6) He means that he does not intend to marry Hero.